Expertise in document drying is an important part of water damage restoration because some of the most vulnerable and irreplaceable items in your home or business may be made of paper. The process of getting back to normality after severe water damage usually includes retrieving and drying important documents in an organized, effective manner. Yet, even though it's a common part of restoration procedures, many myths persist about document drying. Here's some myth-busting to separate the known facts from the “not necessarily so.”
Mold takes a long time to affect paper. Actually, wet or dampened paper presents an ideal growing media for most forms of mold. The mold clock starts running as soon as documents become wet. If temperature conditions are right, mold growth can become well established in as little as 48 hours. Even when restoration and remediation procedures are begun in the most timely manner, mold growth may already be underway and permanently damaging documents.
Documents can be effectively dried by do-it-yourself methods. DIY techniques like sun-drying, exposing wet paper to circulating air from a fan or using a dehumidified room are recipes for more problems. Saturated documents treated this way often dry only along edges and adhere together in the middle, causing even more damage than the water alone.
Nothing beats vacuum freezing for reclaiming water damaged documents. Each scenario must be evaluated individually. Vacuum freezing is the gold standard in some cases, particularly where any wrinkling or warping is unacceptable, such as in books or clay coated paper stock. In other cases, however, desiccant chamber drying can handle a larger volume faster and get a busy office or firm back in business quicker after water damage.
Rytech includes professional document drying among its comprehensive water damage restoration services available in 28 major markets. Contact us today for more information.
Image via Shutterstock.com
